Artifacts are forms of evidence or performance based examples of student work guided through a course assignment used to measure student achievement of course and program learning outcomes and/or Core Competencies. Artifacts may be produced from existing learning activities or assignments and may be used for assessing one or more different types of learning outcomes: course and/or Core Competencies. Artifacts produced demonstrate and support conclusions, including data, as opposed to intuition, belief, or anecdotes. It is, in short, relevant, verifiable, representative, and actionable. Artifacts used for assessment purposes must be retained and uploaded to the program's assessment plan within Watermark Planning and Self Study. At minimum, a sample of strong, weak, and average artifacts must be retained for documentation and accreditation purposes. Student names should be removed to maintain confidentiality.
Therefore, artifacts
1. must be the product of rigorous learning activities that support high standards of learning;
2. must be the product of learning activities that clearly define and align with the student learning outcome(s) as written, reflecting the criteria of the student learning outcome(s);
3. are stand-alone documents such as portfolios and projects such that someone from outside the discipline will be able to evaluate the identified criteria; and
4. must represent the work of individual students; not groups of students.
5. Are free of student identifiable information.
Uploading Artifacts
When uploading student artifacts into Watermark Planning and Self Study, be sure to: